Two piles of soil were moved behind Treasure Mountain Junior High to facilitate construction at McPolin Elementary. A larger pile was moved behind the school in 2017 and a smaller pile was moved in 2022.
However, the piles with heightened levels of lead and arsenic violated city and state codes and must be removed.
The removal started in December 2023 during the district’s winter break. In the first round, 40% of the soil including, the entire smaller pile, was removed. Crews removed more soil this week in the second of three scheduled efforts. Stephen Galley, vice president of R&R Environmental which is removing the piles, said the round didn’t go to plan.
“We were shut down on Tuesday and Wednesday due to snow conditions.”
Galley said they cleared as much snow as possible, but it still weighed down the soil.
“A lot of that snow weight ended up making it into the trucks, which impacts cost, that's something we like to avoid,” he said. “It also has seeped down into the pile.”
Galley said they removed about 130 truckloads of soil, or 20% of the whole project. The soil pile removal is now about 60% complete. The hope was to finish the project during the district’s spring break from April 10 to 14. However, Galley said that won’t be possible.
“The only way we could have finished it most likely in April is if we would have worked completely this week. And we failed at that,” he said.
Galley said project partners now must decide if they will do some work in April or push the final removal date to June during the district’s summer break.
